Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 04:53:52 -0800

To: stang@subgenius.com
From: Hal Robins
Subject: The Mental Travailer Status:

HAL ROBINS TO HELM "LAST TENTACLE SESSION EVER"

"THE MENTAL TRAVELLER" ENDS FAMOUS LIVING ARTIST SERIES
by Ralph Fielding Snell

LAST BLAST: SQUID KID HITS SKIDS

San Francisco - "Laughing Squid," the Internet posting service which informs this city's arts community about ongoing events from the performance underground and elsewhere, announced Wednesday that its long-running, sponsored offshoot, the Tentacle Sessions, would end with one final, historic entertainment, to be given Sunday, March 30th. ALL-NEW PERFORMANCE SPACE
The show, entitled "The Mental Traveller," will be offered at Facility 3, a new venue for the program. It will happen at 1850 Cesar Chavez in building 3, which has its entrance on the cross street, Connecticut Avenue. Featured is San Francisco performer Hal Robins, who promises "a multi-media retrospective like no other." NOT JUST WORDS-- PICTURES!
There will be a strong visual component to the event, Robins explained, and the architecture of the performance space, described in the official Internet posting as a "spacious warehouse location," allows a full view of the action. "Facility 3 doesn't have any pillars or other features to block sight lines," he said. "And we want the audience to get a good, close look." POETIC PANEGYRIC
The evening will start, as it has in previous episodes, with what Robins terms "Bardic recitation," in which he pronounces from memory, or "declaims," the offerings of various poets. Earlier noted presentations featured the longer works of Coleridge, Fitzgerald and Tennyson, among others. On this Sunday, Robins offers as his main subject selected excerpts from the visionary verses of little-understood English mystic William Blake. After that the show veers away from the spoken word to become pictorially oriented, and a large mural, one of Robins's earlier creations (1994), will be digitally projected. "I'll give a travelogue-like tour through this one," he asserted. AGE OF REPTILES
The painting is said to depict a variety of life forms of the Mesozoic age, approximately 135,000,000 years ago. As the narration progresses, well-known clubman and avant-garde DJ "K-Rob" will establish the mood with a well-crafted audio mix of music and disturbingly hyper-realistic sound effects. TV TALES
Abruptly, the event will wildly change its focus again, becoming a rumination on cable television. Robins will describe his two seasons on national TV as announcer, consultant and quondam performer on TNN's "The Conspiracy Zone with Kevin Nealon," aided by video clips. COMIC BOOKS SPRING TO LIFE!
Finally, Robins vows to give a "Cartoon Concert" in the manner of Vaughn and Mark Bode, although employing his own published comic book stories. "They project them big, you see, " Robins expostulated, "and I do the voices and some of the sound effects." "It works after you get used to it," he hastily added. K-ROB TICKLES THE IVORIES
Once again, "K-Rob" will be on hand, coloring the atmosphere with more creative musical sampling while this goes on, employing his "sonic tapestry" technique developed for Robins's weekly night club act with "Chicken" John at the Odeon, San Francisco's most outre nightlife spot in the "Deep Mission" below Cesar Chavez St, MOTHER OF ALL PARTIES
After the curtain, residual tension will find welcome release in a large party, given on the occasion of the end of the series. There will be a full bar open at all times, and hints were made about some kind of a cake. All previous Tentacle Session featured artists are being invited to attend, so that they may symbolically participate in the final obsequies for the Sessions. THE SLAPDOWN
The admission price is between five and ten dollars, based upon one's ability, or willingness, to pay. LAUGHING SQUID TELLS ALL
Here is the full text of the Laughing Squid posting covering this event:

Tentacle Sessions #38
Sunday, March 30th
7pm - 12am

----> Event Description <-----------------------------------------------

After 4 years, The Tentacle Sessions (SF's only self-proclaimed "Living Artists" series) is calling it quits. The last Tentacle Session will be held THIS Sunday, on March 30th. It will star Hal Robins in his 5th Session appearance since he inaugurated our series in February of 1999. We'll commemorate the 38 Sessions past with a post-show party, and we hope you can join us!!

Hal Robins always delivers an incredible show, and THIS time he'll feature facets of his oeuvre that have not previously seen the light of a Sessions audience. The night's program will include an exploration of the poetical works of visionary William Blake, with other voices added; a humorous description of Robins' recent stint on cable television, with clips from the show; an exploration, via digital projection, of a large, imperiled painting, a quasi- heraldic venture into natural history; and a "cartoon concert," in the manner of Vaughn and Mark Bode, featuring some of Robins' published graphic art.

Hal Robins, co-founder of the Church of the SubGenius, comic artist extraordinaire, regular Wednesday night Odeon Question Answerer, polymath, and offical Poster Artist of the Tentacle Sessions, was featured in the series debut back in the 20th century. Since then he has starred in the show's anniversary each year, obsessively telling tales of dinosaurs, monsters, dragons, and more.

For this show the Sessions land at Facility 3. It's our first time at this spacious warehouse location, and it will be a great setting for the final show. We'll have a full bar-- and, after Hal's show, plan on sticking around to celebrate 4 years of fantastic Sessions. The post-show party will feature fun & surprises to send the series out in style!

The Tentacle Sessions was founded on the assumption that, while many artists are conveniently and centrally located in museums and in ponderous Art Books on groaning coffee tables [it is our belief that], "close encounters" with living artists are a vital and even necessary experience. This series has had a good run, featuring filmmakers, writers, sculptors, scientists, musicians and raconteurs, among many others. The complete list is on the website: http://sessions.laughingsquid.org/past/

Schedule for Sunday night:
Doors at 7pm
Show at 7:30pm-9:30
Party after from 9:30 'til ???
and then it's really, really over!

The series was presented by Laughing Squid. Our website is http://sessions.laughingsquid.org/

Facility 3 is located at
1850 Cesar Chavez Bldg.#3 (Enter on Connecticut!) http://www.facility3.com
Directions to the Facility 3:
http://www.facility3.com/directions.html

hope to see you there!

----> Venue Info <------------------------------------------------------

Facility 3
1850 Cesar Chavez Bldg.#3 (enter on Connecticut) San Francisco
http://www.facility3.com

----> Additional Info <-------------------------------------------------

sessions@miklem.com
http://sessions.laughingsquid.com

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----> Laughing Squid <--------------------------------------------------

Laughing Squid
http://www.laughingsquid.org
underground art and culture from San Francisco and beyond

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http://sessions.laughingsquid.org
a monthly living artists series

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Original file name: The Mental Travailer - converted on Monday, 21 July 2003, 13:41